


Smoky Nights and Foggy Skies

by Candid_Chaos



Series: In Which "Byakuran Messes Things Up™" [1]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Disintegration, Gen, Sadness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:13:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27295468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Candid_Chaos/pseuds/Candid_Chaos
Summary: They met at a convenience store, and the lottery decided their altered fates.
Relationships: Reborn & Sawada Tsunayoshi
Series: In Which "Byakuran Messes Things Up™" [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995772
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36





	Smoky Nights and Foggy Skies

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what I'm doing here. 
> 
> This is my first work, so please tell me all about the bad, the good, and the ugly of this, the writing style, etc. I'd rather some kind of feedback on my writing style than anything else. 
> 
> And I guess if any of you all actually like it, I'll continue.

It had been a surprise, at first, that the store manager had even considered his request. Most people would take one look at him, or his record, or even just his sullen eyes- and put him straight into the least effort position in the shop. Not that it was a criminal record or anything! No, really! It was just a less than stellar series of work accidents caused by his chronic clumsiness. He’d only just gotten out of college, there wasn’t even enough time for him to have made such a record!

In the end, it had been that slight glimmer in the manager’s eye that had persuaded him into thinking he might actually be allowed the request.

“I would be rid of you!” He could imagine the bastard saying, sending off emails for the transfer requests with a big smirk playing off his lips.

Thus, a few days later, when he was called into the office (heart thumping heavily in his chest), he was actually more scared than excited.

“Now, this is for your benefit,” the old man started, grin wide. “You’ll prosper better in a different district, I’m sure you think so too?”

There were nods and handshakes all around, and before he knew it, he was out of the office and thrown into his dead-end apartment to await his new work location’s contact.

~ ~ ~

It ended up being the shop near that school he’d used to fantasize about going to when he was little. He didn’t even think a shop there would get business, but it turned out it was between some old beach and campus and the road between was fairly well traveled.

So, he reported for work, was given a key to close and open (for even if it got business, it was still very small, so he would have to do almost everything himself), and that was the last he saw of that store manager.

~ ~ ~

It was a few months before he realized nearly all of the people that came to shop were the very definition of “regulars.”

Not many of them were that memorable, besides two: there was a blond woman who came in every weekend, buying some candy strings for her kid because he “was insufferable, and loves the shitty candy things,” and the dark haired man, always with a small child in tow, who would buy lottery tickets every week on Fridays.

The man was a hoot, that was for sure! He knew the best jokes, and was the best parent he’d seen in a while to his kid- all smiles and hushed explanations of what that hot dog thing is, and why that’s a sausage and not a hot dog, and why there’s a difference between them when that’s clearly a stupid distinction.

And it was like that for a while.

He settled down in that tiny shop, and finally felt like he’d found a small spot where he could work to make a living and not be too miserable while he was at it.

~ ~ ~

“Excuse me, sir?”

He looked up from his crossword puzzle book and at the kid- well, not so much a kid anymore- and grinned. “You can call me Tsuna, kid, we’ve known each other long enough.”

And the look on his face, all puffed like a red blowfish at the very idea of the request was all the reward Tsuna would ever need.

“… mister Tsuna,” he finally spat out, face even redder than before. “Can I get the lottery ticket?”

“Hm?” Tsuna stood up straighter at that, suddenly realizing what the thing that had been nagging him was. He looked around the empty shop, then back at the kid, and… wait...?

“Where’s your dad?” He asked, utterly confused.

The red pufferfish turned into a sad blobfish and the smallest glints of tears gathered in the child’s eyes. “Um. He was- mom said- he…”

Catastrophe coming fast, Tsuna interrupted as quickly as he could. “Hey, it’s okay, kid, I know your dad’s numbers anyways. I’ll have it right out for you.” He almost ran for the lottery station, barely avoiding a trip on the counter corner, grabbing a pen haphazardly on the way.

A few minutes later, with the crying crisis averted and a lottery ticket in the lone child’s hands, seasoned with a quick wave of a send-off, Tsuna went back to his puzzle book.

~ ~ ~

_Ding a ling!_

“Hey, Izuku!”

The teen smiled at Tsuna as he entered, one hand in his pockets looking for money and the other on the creaky door.

“Hello, sir! Have you heard?” he said, almost bouncing on the tips of his toes as he held out the cash. “The results are out!”

Oh, well that was a surprise. Wasn’t it a little early for the school exam results to come in- ah, what would Tsuna know about that kind of thing anyways. It wasn’t like he’d even bothered to apply to the nice schools.

“And what were the results?” he asked, absentmindedly grabbing Izuku’s change from the till.

“I got in to Yueei!” And wow, the lilt of happiness in the teen’s voice was almost visible with how strong it was.

“That’s fantastic,” Tsuna smiled, plopping the change into waiting hands.

Certainly not something he would’ve even imagined, but gosh, the kid was going places now. Far away from this little convenience store-

“Wait, did you say Yueei!?” Tsuna startled, Izuku’s words only truly catching up to him then. “That’s- wow- w-what a great- wow!”

Izuku’s young face was positively brimming in sunshine hues. “Yep! Gotta go, though, bye!” he shouted, pocketing the change and grabbing the ticket so fast he honestly should’ve tripped and faceplanted, only recovering just as the door was swinging shut.

“What a handful,” Tsuna sighed, smiling.

~ ~ ~

It had been some time since he’d seen Izuku. His route must’ve changed, and it’s not like they were actual friends or anything, so he certainly wasn’t kept in the loop or anything.

He certainly wasn’t expecting the teen to burst through his window one night, clutching and arm as fires and explosions echoed in the background.

When Tsuna had risen from his hiding place behind the counter with a mounting hook, halfway into a swing already when the familiarity of the face registered, he faltered and rammed it into the chip display instead, narrowly avoiding the green fabric of the hero outfit.

_Hero outfit!?_

“Izuku! You’re- hero- hurt!” He yelled, rushing over with the first aid kit he’d kept for his own trips and falls during stocking days.

He was several soaked bandages in before Izuku even seemed to realize the situation, shifting from his side on the floor- and oh, that was why. The left half of his body seemed to be rapidly aging, wrinkling and losing mass so fast that there was no way the bandages would end up being useful.

Izuku’s eyes were half lidded, bloodshot and teary, as he met Tsuna’s.

“Hey, sir. Long time no see,” he croaked. “…I don’t feel good.”

“Oh.” Tsuna choked on his words, watching the advancement of the virus, quirk, whatever it was- eating his body with time. “Kid- oh… I’m…”

Izuku shifted again, trying to stand as Tsuna desperately held onto his right side, hoping by some miracle the quirk would stop- but when the entire left half of his body gave out, and even his face began to shrivel, wrinkles forming and hair falling off his head like it were snow- the look of defeat in his eyes was too much to bear.

Tsuna looked away, biting his lip and no, he wasn’t crying, this was no time for that!

“S-sir…”

And that had to get him to look back, especially if it was a dying wish or something, and…

Izuku held out a soda can that he’d grabbed from the floor in his left hand, not yet riddled with age, smiling weakly with some sort of strange determination in his eyes. “You look l-like you could use a- drink.”

Opening the lid with one hand, (and who knew he could do that), even as the rest of his face surrendered to the quirk, the bald look a stark contrast to the green mop that Tsuna had gotten so used to, Izuku pushed it, shaking, into his outstretched hands.

Something of a glint passed through his eyes with that, Izuku’s eyes jaggedly following a line from his forehead to the floor, then focusing weakly on the can.

“It’s- I’m- You…” Tsuna couldn’t and he looked down. This was too much, he couldn’t! But he cradled the can in his hands anyways, the liquid sloshing just barely distracting enough to ground him a bit.

“H-Hey,” Izuku strained, hands barely putting pressure on Tsuna’s own, his muscles nearly gone. “It’ll… be fine! W-Why…?”

_Oh god- gods, no._

“I- I am- here!”

And Tsuna had to look back at that, just in time for Izuku’s entire existence to shred itself into part particles of dust and spread themselves on the floor, and oh god, everything is not okay.

He set the can down and stared, darkness edging the corners of his vision as both tears and panic pervaded his senses. It crept closer and closer, until only tiny pinpricks of light were all that was left of his vision before the darkness took him.

He vaguely felt the floor as he smashed against it, though he would feel it later, he imagined.

~ ~ ~

It was weeks before Tsuna was able to walk back into that shop after the villain raids. Partly because he’d been hospitalized for a large amount of particulate matter in his airways, not to mention the smoke damage from the fires that had erupted that night.

The other source of apprehension was the nightmare he’d had shortly after he’d woken in the hospital. He’d sit up in darkness with a cloud of Izuku next to him, fires burning all around, and the kid would evaporate into the smoke and choke him, his throat gagging as he desperately swallowed the thick mixed ashes, trying to clear his throat.

It had been a recurring nightmare, now, especially since his sleep deprived brain had conjured an absolutely normal hallucination of him throwing up Izuku’s ashes.

...

That one had left his throat feeling raw and coppery for days.

Anyways! All that aside, he knelt to pick up some fallen roof tiles, musing on how much trauma was in his little head from that incident. _Probably a never-ending amount_ , he half chuckled, half sighed.

With a grunt, he stood up, dusting his hand off on his pant legs. There was entirely too much work here! The work went quickly, though, until he spotted that flat can of soda, the embodiment of some kind of a cosmic joke of a dying wish.

It didn’t actually look that gross, considering, and since it was a dying wish and the kid certainly deserved this much from him, if anything, it wouldn’t hurt to?

Yeah, no thanks. 

Maybe he’d empty it and keep it as a memento, though. The kid deserved some kind of token memorial from him, he'd known him that long...


End file.
